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Athens

The American College of Greece - Welcome - Athens

Athens

As the home of Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum - the two greatest schools in antiquity - Athens can justifiably claim to be an incomparable setting for an institution of higher learning. The birthplace of Western culture and civilization, Athens has come to exemplify what men and women can achieve when allowed to exercise their minds and imaginations in a free and open society.

From its mythical founding by the legendary King Theseus, who united the independent towns of Attica and forged them into a single city-state, or polis, Athens became the center where the Hellenic ideals of the spirit of inquiry, critical thinking, rational discourse, and artistic expression were realized. Socrates, Plato's revered mentor, engaged his fellow Athenians in dialogues recorded by his illustrious pupil that convey the quintessence of philosophical questioning and reasoning. The great tragic and comic poets, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes, and Euripides, produced their supreme works of dramatic art in this city. Thucydides opened his enduring history by proudly identifying himself as an Athenian.

The idea of demokratia, or rule by the people, has its origins in Athens, with the political reforms of sage lawgivers and rulers such as Solon and Cleisthenes. The Athenian ideal was later enunciated with surpassing eloquence by the statesman Pericles in his inspired Funeral Oration where he paid tribute to his city as the "school of Hellas" which, because of its noble institutions, concern for culture and education, love of discussion, sense of duty and honor, and passion for justice, was a model for the world and "worthy of admiration"

Today, Athens is the capital of a country that is a member of the European Union. Greece now belongs to a greater political and geographic entity and partakes of an expanded and hopeful vision. Athens is a culturally invigorating urban center of museums, theaters, and music halls and is well on its way to becoming a twenty-first century computerized metropolis, with a state-of-the-art metro system and space-age airport - all ages removed from the antique days of archons and triremes.

And yet, when the peoples and nations wend their way to Greece for the Olympic Games in 2004, the past will be reechoed, as Athens will once again proclaim, in the proud words of Pericles: "We throw open our city to the world".

And when the time comes for the city to be thrown open, Athens will be able to show the world what it can see nowhere else.

During the Athenian Enlightenment of 2,500 years ago, the city nurtured such master architects as Ictinus, Callicrates, and Mnesicles, and the immortal sculptor Phidias. They adorned the hill overlooking the city, principal sanctuary of the patron goddess, Athena, with the magnificent Parthenon and Erechtheum temples and the splendor of the Propylaea.

The Acropolis, the "high city", is Athens' monumental legacy to the West and to the world and, withstanding the vicissitudes of time and events, remains an ageless testament to human excellence and to the "glory that was Greece".